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Microsoft SA www.microsoft.com/southafrica

Bringing out the best

Microsoft SA

Tracy Bolton, who heads Microsoft South Africa’s Information Worker division, talks to Jayne Alverca about the group’s mission to optimise the user experience

Bill Gates

Microsoft SA

T

he name of Microsoft is Enhanced productivity is fundamental synonymous with ground- to corporate and economic growth and breaking solutions to business the Microsoft productivity platform is problems, innovative ideas and at the leading edge of the new wave of an extensive range of products technologies that unify communication and services which enable real-time and collaboration across the PC, phone and collaboration and data visualisation in browser, giving employees the tools they a manner undreamt of just a decade ago. need to be productive and save money.

Founded by the legendary Bill Gates in 1975, Whether the workforce is in one location Microsoft has achieved global prominence or distributed globally, Microsoft’s range of by providing solutions that cut across every productivity tools allows all employees to level of business and consumer needs. work as members of a cohesive team who The corporation is broadly managed on can seamlessly interact with each other. divisional lines according Bolton believes that to the area of technology demand for productivity is focus. For the Information driven by a simple premise.

Worker d iv ision of “You could say that we Microsoft, which houses enable the people using the corporation’s renowned our products to be the best Number of Microsoft Office suite of productivity they can. To put it as plainly offices in Africa products, the future is as possible, our aim is to ensure that anyone using one where technology can our products is able to do infinitely extend beyond human productive capabilities and our their job better and more cost-effectively.” capacity for interaction, collaboration Microsoft Office is one of the flagship products of the Microsoft productivity and communication.

The team is managed by Tracy Bolton, portfolio. It dominates the South African and is responsible for all aspects of bringing and global markets, with sales that have the Microsoft suite of productivity consistently outstripped the growth of the products and services to market, including market over the past 10 years.

Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Bolton explains the unfailing appeal of Project, Visio and Office 365. It is one of Office: “It has the great benefit of a very high 14 offices on the African continent which level of user familiarity and is so intuitive serve 49 countries: Microsoft believes in the way it helps people using the product Africa has enormous untapped potential to enhance their work, whether they are and has prioritised inward investment, designing a PowerPoint presentation or initially focusing on South Africa, but now assisting with the extraction of meaningful data from an Excel spreadsheet.” radiating out across the continent.

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Microsoft SA

Application sharing on Lync

The South African economy still has into a single unified communications great scope for further expansion and in system that can readily be integrated into turn, Bolton expects market penetration existing systems,” Bolton explains. “This to grow exponentially over the coming allows companies to significantly reduce years. The introduction of Microsoft the traditional cost of internal and external Lync in 2010, which brings together voice communications. It is extremely easy to communications, IM and audio, video and adapt and use, with virtually no training. web conferencing into a With Lync, it takes just one single interface, is another click to access a conference, powerful and emerging make a call, share a video, a message, or a document.” revenue stream.

Microsoft believes that Office 365 is another Lync heralds a new era recent addition to the in the connected user portfolio. “With Office 365, experience. “This newest we can offer users access Sum to be invested addition to our productivity to the full Office suite, and under Equity Equivalence suite enables many formerly associated technologies, initiative over the next in such a way that they discrete communication seven years can either be consumed technologies to be combined

r5o0 million

“We feel that our technology enables small businesses to play on a level playing field with much larger enterprises” in the cloud or in a conventional business environment. Users have the flexibility to move in and out of the cloud as they choose, and they benefit from lower capital and management costs. Small businesses can also ‘pay as they use’, which has a positive impact on their cash flow,” she explains.

Microsoft believes strongly that small business is where the future growth engine of South Africa lies. “If we are to

create jobs for the future, that is the sector of industry which we need to succeed. We feel that our technology enables small businesses to play on a level playing field with much larger enterprises because it means they can exchange information and leverage each other’s skills in exactly the same way,” says Bolton.

To support South Africa’s broader economic and development goals, and as

Microsoft SA

The name of Microsoft is synonymous with ground-breaking solutions and innovative ideas

part of its own broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) programme, Microsoft South Africa last year started an Equity Equivalence initiative that will see it invest R500 million in growing several sustainable, independent and majority black-owned software companies in South Africa over the next seven years.

The size of the investment makes it the biggest deal of its kind by an IT company in South Africa. To date, six small black-owned software development companies have been brought into the programme. To qualify, they had to have no more than 30 employees, and turn over less than R10 million a year.

Microsoft believes they have the potential to become global leaders in their respective fields and is pouring significant time, energy

and resources into realising this goal.

The programme is a key facet of the company’s BBBEE strategy, and has helped raise its BBBEE rating to Level 2. “We want to demonstrate our commitment to making a positive contribution towards a progressive and inclusive economic model that will drive South Africa’s future economic growth. Through this programme, we hope that the market will come to associate BBBEE with real entrepreneurship, job creation, enterprise development and skills enhancement,” she concludes.

For more information about Microsoft SA visit: www.microsoft.com/southafrica

Microsoft SA www.microsoft.com/southafrica